October 13, 2008

Nowadays almost every internet user has a blog of his/her own. But usually people prefer free blogs from the two most blogging platforms - Blogger or Wordpress.
Blogs from Blogger are generally preferred more because they are directly related to Google (actually Blogger is owned by Google) and so are given more priority during a Google search. Moreover the facilities given by Blogger are much more as compared to WordPress.

But the problem with these blogs is the name/url of the blog, being very long (***.blogspot.com) it is usually difficult to remember or pass on the address to your friends. So this tutorial will guide you to get a professional domain name (for just $6.99 per year) for your existing Blogger blog.

BloggerStop.net is also a custom domain registered at 1and1.com. So I would recommend you to purchase a domain from 1and1, which is a very trusted website and listed on Bloggers' suggested registrars too [List Here]

Once you purchase a domain from 1and1, in about 2 days it will be registered.STEP #1
When your domain registration is completed, go to Administration section -> "Manage Domains" and create a new sub-domain (like www.YOUR_DOMAIN.com or blog.YOUR_DOMAIN.com).
Then select this sub-domain (click on the tick-box against this sub-domain), then click on the drop-down menu item DNS -> Edit DNS Settings.

STEP #2
Now in this new page, click on the Radio button "CNAME", then in front of Alias, paste this:

ghs.google.com

STEP #3
Once this has been done, go to Blogger.com and for the appropriate blog click on the link Settings, then go to the section Publishing.
In this page, click on the link Custom Domain.

STEP #4
And finally click on the link Already own a domain? Switch to advanced settings

STEP #5
Now enter the url of the sub-domain whose DNS settings has been edited by you at 1and1. Enter the Captcha code (Word Verification), and click on Save Settings, and then mark the tick-box too: "Redirect www.***.com to ***.com"

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86
comments:

wow, this is very informative! i have a question though, if ever I decide to go with the free web hosting, how will i control my website? I have a blogger site by the way. So for example, if i wish to edit my blog, should i go to blogger website or directly to my customized co.cc website?thanks for enlightening your blogger readers!Cheers!

I just took the plunge and made my own custom domain with 1and1. Will I have to update all my linkbacks from others (ad all my link banners) or will people clicking thou get the auto foward? Also I see I have no page rank anymore. When will that re-update? Thx in advance!

Do not worry for anything!If you have recently transferred the blog domain, then wait for two days, it takes some time, when you transfer domain from 1and1 to blogger.After that you'll get to see the new name of your blog, and your pagerank will be back too !

Feel free to comment here for any of your queries !Congrats for the new domainHappy blogging !

Once your account becomes active, you will see the "Administrator" active.....then you can easily redirect your new domain to blogger, here follow these steps once you see the "Administrator" tab active:

1. Log in to your account at https://admin.1and1.com 2. If it's not already selected, click the Administration tab. 3. Click Domains. The Domain Overview page appears. 4. From the New drop-down menu, select Create Subdomain. (If you've already created a subdomain for your blog's address, skip to step six.) 5. Enter only the subdomain you want to use, and click OK. For example, if you chose www.mydomain.com for your blog's address, you should enter www here. 6. Select the checkbox next to the subdomain that you will be using. (Example: www.mydomain.com) 7. From the DNS menu, select Edit DNS Settings. 8. Click the radio button next to CNAME. 9. Enter ghs.google.com next to Alias. 10. Click OK.

For clarifications, of course you can refer to the post above or you can ask anywhere in this blog !

Seems a few of the paid post sites I'm trying to work for don't see it that way ;/ and treat my new name as a new page entirely. Page rank (thou it was pidly) has not returned. Oh well, will haveta work it back up I guess lol!

Hi darksaturn,so it's gud that you can see your blog with a new domain now, anyways, regarding the PR issue, you may have to wait from anywhere between 2 weeks to 3 months, as per these websites says:1. http://blogsolute.com/2008/06/does-permanent-301-redirection-affect-google-pagerank.html 2. http://www.submitexpress.com/bbs/about14868.html3. http://www.ragepank.com/articles/97/seo-issues-with-moving-a-domain/

But one thing you have to make sure is, to maintain good quality content during this period, and try to get some good backlinks.paid posts may affect adversely, so if possible try to avoid them for another 1/2 months !

If your blog(with domain .co.cc) is not yet three months old, then it will show "0", and even if the blog is more than 3 months old, then also it depends on the number of backlinks your blog have !Just search on Google about pagerank, and you'll understand better how it works....

And regarding the adsense issue, If you are simply using domain forwarding then you cannot submit this domain, but if you are using DNS management then you must submit this .co.cc domain, anyways what's your blog's address dude ?

Well Divya, i think i will do what u suggest us. i will take a domain at 1and1. i have created my blog some days ago so i have nothing to lose but for feedburner, Google analytics, Google webmaster and all the rest do i have to change all the links or its done automatically.

blogger gives u a domain with eNOM, is it better, i see they give you access to Google app, but is it only the Google app standard which is free for every body ???

thanks for the answer but, well i have just registred in 1and1. =)) http://www.leblogger.comthere was an option when i regester, if u want to be allowed to renew the domain it's about 3 euros more. so i didn't take it. 8-} for eNOM and NAME.com i thing they are only in the USA and only english.for google apps, yes the standard version is free for every body, but the Premiere version costs 40$ efen if u register ur domain directly from blogger.

Now i will wait until they register the domain name then i hope i can do all the setting to get every thing work fine :))

It usually takes around 2-4 days, first finish your DNS work, then proceed with G-W.It mainly requires you to place a meta tag on your blog, then you'll verify that the blog belongs to you, then you can simply add the site-map.

after the changes i made, in blogger i added www.leblogger.com and they say congratulation, blog has been verified !!!!

but i still have the : Server Not FoundError 404

maybe i have to change something.the first time i changed the domain (leblogger.com) DNS and i add the subdomain (www.leblogger.com) to blogger. but now i changes the domain and the subdomain DNS and i add the subdomain to blogger.i also redirect my subdomain to my domain, and my domain to my domain.

so i don't know if i should change the domain DNS sitting or first wait and see !!!!

I have a problem with my blog when it gets redirected to my domain. The slideshow stop working and show all pictures at the same time, some widgets stop working and other move from their side!Any idea why is it happening?My blog is http://pepua.blogspot.com/

Hi there, I would like to change my my blogspot url to custom domain using the advice you have here. I have registered my new domain with 1and1. Before I change my blog to new custom domain, I would like to know 2 things please:1. if people try use the old blogger url, are they automatically directed to the new url? or must I do something further to achive this?2. what happens to all my friendfeed and rss subcribers - how do I ensure they still subscribed?ThanksKevinhttp://kevinsgreatadventure.blogspot.com

your first query is not an issue at all, as all the traffic to your .blogspot will be redirected to your new domain.

for ex, see the present url in my blog:http://bloggerstop.net/2008/10/get-domain-unlimited-hosting-and.html

due to redirection, this url means the same as previous one:http://world2web.blogspot.com/2008/10/get-domain-unlimited-hosting-and.html

(where world2web.blogspot.com used to be my .blogspot url)

2. The second issue is not too easy to deal with. You have to personally tell all your present subscribers about the changeSo BEFORE you change the address, publish a post announcing the change of url. So all your present subscribers will update their feed links as soon as your blog is updated with a new link. In the same post ask them to leave a comment so that you can personally reply them through mail, whenever the change takes place.

Hi.. Sai...This is Rajesh From hyd...This is my blog ... www.funevil.blogspot.com ,yesterday i registerd funevil.com in www.internetbs.net, but when i do steps u mentioned, when i try to see my blog it shows blogger warning " Blog redirect to funevil.com asks yes or no" ,if i click yes i ll not redirect to blog (staying in blog worning page)...

i read some where it takes 2 days ,but it's difficult,is there any way to set fastly...

Hi Rajesh, congrats for the domain. Yeah it'll take 2 days (minimum), but I think the warning about redirection depends on the registrar of the domain, because in my case no warning was displayed and a dns error/redirection page used to be displayed.don't worry let it go down for 2 days, u'll enjoy its benefits ever after :)

Hi Sai. It's me RV2x08 from game master zone. i've been register with co.cc with several months. i've checked the bok "redirect gm-zone.co.cc to www....". but now when i type gm-zone.co.cc at my address bar. It will show a message such as "you tried to visit http://gm-zone.co.cc,which is not loading". wat's the problem here?

nope. it's still like that.wat i mean is when i typed my site address with 'www' it will be ok. but if i insert with only gm-zone.co.cc(without www) it will show the message 'which is not loading pls try with www.gm-zone.co.cc'. ~x(

I need serious help! I cannot upload anything on my blog! The posts are showing in my feed, but they do not go live- I have emptied my cache, and switched browsers. I purchased my domain name through blogger and pay the $10.00 a year. I thought they would automatically charge my card annually, but apparently not so I updated my payment info. I will pay whatever I need to but need my blog up and running! Please help me! Thanks!

Well, I have registered BloggerStop.Net at 1and1.com, every year it auto-renews the domain with the payment details I have given (you can select it as either card/paypal)You can transfer your domain from your present registrar to 1and1 for FREE, details here:http://order.1and1.com/xml/order/DomaininfoMove

BTW I can see all your posts on your blog, and I think things are fine on your blog.Feel free to ask your queries here in this blog, if you want I can send you the screenshot of your blog as seen on my desktop.

This works very well for new blogs. However, there may be issues with exiting blogs.

I've had a blog for two years, with a complimentary website held elsewhere so that I could host a chat room and other facilities that blogger couldn't handle.

With recent changes to blogger, such as static pages, this was no longer necessary so I scrapped the website and had the domain configured to point to the blog. Very straight forward, except that now, none of the comments prior to the change are showing up. 1200 or so comments have gone AWOL.

They are still present, in that the show up in comment feeds, but not in the blog or my dashboard. They show up if I import to a test blog. This appears to be a known issue, but without a fix and so far, I've had no response from Google help forum.

That's only because I switched off the custom domain facility and reverted back to using betyourlife.blogspot.com after I posted the initial comment here.

The custom domain, i.e. www.betyourlife.co.uk has been reconfigured to forward to the blog without using the CNAME mechanism.

I did this for two reasons: Firstly, after nearly four days, there was no sign of my comments reappearing and my readers were getting rather upset. Secondly, the change complete screwed up the blog search facility since all the posts (over two years worth) now belonged to a different domain and they hadn't been indexed.

Even if Google get this sorted, I don't know if I'll revert again, though I would certainly advise anyone setting up a new blog to use a custom domain sooner, rather than later.

hi sai.Hi should i redirect my main domain example.com to www.example.com Can you explain the steps in detail.Also what abt the feed and webmaster tools.Will they get automatically redirected or do we need to change any settings

Yes you can do that...but simple redirection may not work (look professional), you either need to change the cname records or better redirect your naked domain (example.com) to Blogger by changing the "A" name records, so that your same blog can be accessed at both the addresses and simultaneously you can access your mail too.

Thanks for the reply.But you didnt said anything regarding webmaster tools.I have three questions to ask you.1.The site map which i have submitted previously is giving error.Can u help me in that.Please explain the webmaster tools settings.2.Can u explain in bit detail how to change the A name records or how to redirect your naked domain to blogspot blog.Right now i'm using a subdomain(www.domain.com) of my main domain to re-direct to blogspot.And i have changed the dns settings of naked domain to ghs.google.com.So both domains are redirecting to blogspot.But just want to know about A name Records changing.3.I think 1and1 provides 1 mail-id right.If so then how to use it and what is the size of it.

I'm waiting for your reply.

And one more thing is whenever i find a site having great content i tend to visit their sponsors.I feel that it is my way of showing appreciation to webmaster and your blog deserves it.:-*

I registered for my demain at 1 & 1 and it shows as 'ready'. I went through all the steps detailed in this post to redirect blogger to my domain, but keep getting a 1&1 page... does it take time for this to transfer over? I am creating a new blog so there isn't a lot of content at the moment.

Greeting friends , Well i followed all steps as mentioned above to make my blog a website . It work quite well as i redirect my blog url to www.****.co.cc , but only at home page .When i go to another page like about me then url changes to http://www.blogger.com/profile/121533304**** , which do'nt look good for a professional website .

Please help me , to solve this problem . Tell me how to hide such kind of big(containing blog information)URL . How can i maintain URL only related to my www.****.co.cc/ address .

Waw... Comment section cleared most of my doubts. I want to keep my current blogspot id and co.cc id , both redirecting to same site. Hw can i do that ? Can u say what to fill in each column in co.cc site to get domain and what to change in blogger step by step. I knw its boring to u . But i dont want to make a mistake. Thats y :)

Yaaahoooo..... Done it ... I saw it in blogger help also. It was easy. Bt got tensd 4 nothing. My character wil never change. :-p . Thanx 4 help. Is it true that co.cc don't have any SEO value and google will not index it ?

Glad you made it Riyas...Well, actually if the content and the no. of backlinks is really good, then you can get good reputation from Google (that's according to the SEO-theory).But yeah, in SEO some TLD's are more preferred than others, like .edu/lgov etc.I have harldy ever seen a free domain with high Google-PR (except .blogspot.com blogs, which are hosted by Blogger/Google itself), in fact even I used to have a free website with ".page.tl" which could hardly ever managed to get a few clicks from Google.So, once you get accustomed with theses things, I would advise you to go for a paid domain.

Hi sai This is Rajesh 2 days back i registered www.techtasks.net . but i struck at creating a sub domain www.techtasks.net , it give's error like Invalid Sub domain ( http://d.imagehost.org/0993/Error.jpg ).but i can able to create blogger.techtasks.net. and working great also.

The WWW site is opening and 1and1 ads are being displayed on it...that means that sub-domain has already been registered. Just redirect it to your main domain, read this tutorial for the correct procedure:http://bloggerstop.net/2010/07/blogger-custom-domain-subdomain-vs.html

My questions:1) Can I still use Blogger to update my blog with a paid domain? 2) And will those who go to my blogger blog be directed to my paid domain? 3) What happens to my page-views and pagerank if there is any?

Sorry for the lots of question. Im a complete noob and scared at the same time.

hello Divya,I own a wallpaper blog with 3 lac alexa ranking. Those who are hosted on enom and godaddy can also use a naked domain? Currently google is sending traffic to www domain. My visitor will be redirected to the same post he was searching for? What about my subscribers? and google page rank! Looking forward to your positive response

Hello Almas,If you are using WWW subdomain for your blog currently, then I would suggest you to continue with it rather than switching to naked-domain.By not blocking your naked-domain you keep the options open to have email accounts on it and start more sub-domains on it.

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What They Say...

Divya Sai is the ingenious webmaster of Bloggerstop.Net. Divya is extremely patient, knowledgeable and responsive... Bloggerstop.net has an abundance of articles on creating widgets, templates, hacks and ways to make your blog search engine friendly.- Stacey @Pets With AllergiesI stumbled onto a great site. Sai, over at Bloggerstop.net has helped me tremendously and with great patience...for any and all questions regarding computer issues. And again, THANK YOU Sai.- Cheryl @Cmash Loves To Read